A children’s book… dedicated to the fallen in Newtown, Conn.

If you were a children’s author or illustrator, and someone asked you to create a picture book that responds to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary…

What would you say?

What would you draw?

How would you recast the horror of that December morning in Newtown, Conn. — which left 20 children and 8 adults dead — into an honest but uplifting story?

How would you turn a tragedy defined by loss and death into a book about memory and life?

Patrician MacLachlan and Steven Kellogg have found a way. Their picture book, “Snowflakes Fall,” will be published by Random House Children’s Books on Nov. 12.

MacLachlan, the author of dozens of books for young readers, won the 1986 Newbery Medal for her classic children’s book, “Sarah, Plain and Tall.” Kellogg, an author and illustrator of 100 children’s books, lived in Newtown, Conn. for 35 years and raised 6 children there — some of whom attended Sandy Hook Elementary.

MacLachlan, 75, and Kellogg, 71, are good friends who had talked about the tragedy. So when an agent asked them if they’d be willing to collaborate on a book, they said yes.

“I was so saddened and shocked by what happened in Newtown,” says MacLachlan, speaking by phone from Massachusetts, where she lives. “But children are so aware of what goes on, and they need to talk about it.”

So she sat down in her daughter’s house a few weeks ago, where she was surrounded by young children and a rescue dog that kept putting its head in her lap, and wrote:

After the flowers are gone

Snowflakes fall.

Flake,

After flake

After flake

Each one a pattern

All its own –

No two the same –

All beautiful.

The book is about the cycle of the seasons, MacLachlan explains, and the snowflakes become symbols for the children who died in Newtown.

At the same time,”Snowflakes Fall” is intended for all children and adults who feel touched by loss and sadness.

“Memory is important,” MacLachlan says. “Good memories are important. And when we remember the snowflakes, we remember the children.”

Author and illustrator Steven Kellogg signs one of his books in Maine in 2012. (Photo: Amber Waterman)

For Kellogg, who now lives in the Adirondacks, the tragedy at Sandy Hook was deeply personal.

“I know that community so well,” he says. “I raised my family there in an 18th-century farmhouse. I was in that community and that school all the time.”

But Kellogg feels uplifted by the fact that he’s able to generate something creative and positive to help dispel the shadows of the tragedy.

Most scenes from the book take place in winter, and he’ll use mixed media — water colors, ink, pencil work — to create scenes with snowflakes and children making snow angels.

His publisher wants the illustrations completed by the end of March, so he’s looking at a busy month.

“The books emphasizes that snowflakes are miracles of beauty and design and life,” Kellogg says. “There’s a short foreward dedicated to the children of Sandy Hook, but we want to be careful not to make it exploitative… It’s a celebration of their life and of life generally, of being a part of nature and the wonder of growing up.”

Both Kellogg and MacLachlan say “Snowflakes Fall” has been a true collaboration.

Kellogg made suggestions and additions to the text and MacLachlan weighed in on how the words and images would be combined on the page.

Kellogg also recognizes parallels between his personal life and his work on the book.

“My wife has Alzheimer’s,” he explains, “and I’m her caretaker. She’s at home with me and doing incredibly well. But the news about the shooting has been very difficult for her. She has-short term memory loss and every time she hears about it, it’s new. She relives it. I’m trying to get her to the point where it is not new, and to help her understand that people are trying to learn from it.”